New Zealand 2015

We spent a glorious 30 days in New Zealand over the holidays (Dec 9th, 2015 to Jan 9th, 2016). It was amazing and here is our experience to share. 

Best moments
- over 2 dozens bottleneck dolphins swam around and under our kayaks on day 2 of our 3-day kayak trip in Doubtful Sound. caught on this 20 sec video

Mt Ruapehu on day 2

- Caught a weather window for our Northern Circuit great walk in the Tongariro National park.  We started at 3p on day 1, it was windy and the clouds shrouded the mountains, but no rain for our 3 hours hike to the hut. It had rained earlier in the day as there were lots of wet clothes and shoes in the hut.  We caught our first glimpse of Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom) over dinner while we were in the hut.

The next morning, we woke up to perfect blue sky. We had perfect view of Mt Doom and the much bigger Mt Ruapehu as we hiked the 20+km day completing the Northern Circuit (part of the circuit is the Tongariro Alpine traverse).

First glimpse of Mt Doom as the cloud lifted in the evening

Magnificent emerald pools and volcano vents.
lots of people on the Tongariro Alpine Traverse

- Brunch at the Vudu cafe in Queenstown
- Pizza at the Cow in Queenstown. After 3 days hiking the Routeburn Track great walk, amazing pizza hit the spot.

beautiful Tussock fields and braided river in Arthur's Pass NP

- A cold dip in the braided river at Arthur's Pass National Park on day 3 of our hike.  This was a magical moment when I am reminded how the most simple thing can bring so much joy.

 - It was X'mas Eve.  We had hiked 2 days into the wilderness to a hut at Arthur's Pass National Park.  We met 6 other hikers from all over the world.  The two Germans carried a bottle of wine 2 days and shared the the group.  We played Durok all night!  Durok is a card game often played at work in our team. I'd never guess that I'd be half way around the world, days into the wilderness and I'm playing the same card game!

Beach and Sunshine on the Abel Tasman

- 4 days on the Abel Tasman great walk where we walked on the beach, swim, eat, repeat.  3 days of warm blue sky weather.  I'd also count the last day of torrential rain as an experience.  We had a short 6km to the trailhead to meet the shuttle.  Totally drenched, we stopped at a hut in the middle and brewed up some coffee which hit the spot.  Our last shower was 4 days ago, backpacks were 100% water logged, we still managed to get on an earlier flight to Wellington - score!


- First time mountain biking.  full suspension bike and hydraulic seat. 130km of bike trail in tree fern and redwood forest was a great intro to mountain biking - I'm so spoiled.

- 16 hour daylight in Dec and Jan.  I can't tell you how much sunshine and warm temperature makes me happy.  How about skipping winter solstice and have two summer solstices a year? I'll definitely be looking to make more trips to the southern hemisphere in Dec/Jan.

Pancake rocks, West coast of the South island

Thoughts and observations
-Kiwis love walking around bare feet.  we were surprised to see many people walking around bare feet in the city and in the wild.  Frodo is a real kiwi!
- when kiwis are not bare feet, you'd likely find them wearing flip flops, which they call jandals.
- The song of the birds in New Zealand were captivating.  you can hear the bell bird, tui, the fantail. I have never paid much attention to birds.  but the bird calls in NZ instantly captured my attention for the entire time i was there.

- Food:  savory scones, we have found more savory scones than sweet scones in the cafes and we love savory scones. Cheese and rocket scones.   Why are savory scones so rare in Seattle cafes?  (the rare exception being savory scones at the Mazama store and Wake n' Bake in Glacier, which we love)

- The Kiwi name for Arugula is Rocket. We bought a bag of rockets on our hikes.

- We found vibrant cafe scene in all the cities and small towns that we visited with great pastry selections. kiwis take their coffee differently than what we're accustomed to.  Tall Blacks is like a 4 oz Americano.  you can ask for an Americano but you will have to ask if you are used to taking cream with your coffee. ask for cold cream, else they'll try to give you warm milk.  oh they use real cream, not half and half, and it's soooo good!  Flat white is like a 4oz latte

- NZ has an amazing network of backcountry huts. we stayed in or passed by over 10 of them during our time there and all were well maintained and well situated. New Zealand Dept of Conservation (call the DOC) maintains over 950 huts. The huts on the great walks (there are 9 great walks in NZ) were not the cheap but not prohibitively expensive.  Other huts (non-great walks) range from free to NZD$15 (US$ 10) per person per night.  It's amazing to hike in the wild for 2 days and come upon a hut with stove, running water, flushing toilet, beds, fireplace and supply of firewood.

- energy and water conscious.  Every power plug has an on-off switch, I suspect it's code there.  There are a lot of signs reminding you to conserve water.  The city of

Wading in the braided river, Arthur's Pass NP

Christchurch is supplied by the underground aquifer.

- no need to filter water!  we brought our filter and didn't need to use it.  you can drink straight front the streams, the huts get water from streams and consider the water safe to drink. don't need to bring water filter next time.

- Showers at Auckland airport. You read that correctly - The Auckland airport offers complimentary showers. Such a great and idea when half of the passengers on the 24 hour international flights arrive  to the airport directly from their latest outdoors pursuit.

- Christchurch: 5 years after the 2011 earthquake, Christchurch downtown is the closest i have felt i was in a post apocalyptic sci-fi book. The city is making major effort to clear out affected structure, half the main city block is of dirt parking lot.  It got me thinking as Seattle is expecting the big earthquake.

- Tree ferns! 

Amazing Mountain Bike park in Rotorua

-I was surprised to learn that the islands of New Zealand do not originally have mammals.  the two token mammals that were originally found there were two kinds of bats.  that's why there are so many ground running birds, the kiwis being the most well-known, there were no ground predators so birds don't need to fly.  so when the brits moved into New Zealand, they found there were no animals to support their gentile sport of hunting, so they introduced rabbits.  guess what happen with Rabbits when there is no predators?  they ballooned in numbers.  to keep the number of rabbits in control, they introduced stouts, weasels, and possums.  Rats also escapes from ships onto the island of New Zealand.  These predators found that it's easier to hunt down the ground running birds, which didn't know to run away, than the rabbits.  so many of the ground running birds are extinct or endanger. Now, DOC is spending major effort to eradicate the introduced predators and bring back the native birds.

Our itinerary.  We spent about 2/3 of our 30 days in the mountain.  2/3 in the South island and 1/3 in the north island.  We rented car for about 12 days in total. first 6 days from Queenstown, returning in Nelson.  second 6 days from Wellington returning at Auckland airport.

• Flew into Auckland and spent 2 days in Auckland
• flew from Auckland to Queenstown
• Bus from Queenstown to Te Anau
• 3-day Kayak trip in the Doubtful Sound, Fiordland National Park
• a day in Te Anau, visited a cave with loads of glowworms!
• 3-day hike Routeburn Track Great walk
• rented a car, car toured to Christchurch
• 3-day hike in Arthur's Pass National Park (X'mas)
• Car tour up the beautiful west coast, visited the Pancake rocks, returned car in Nelson
• 1 day in Nelson, biked to the beach and spent the whole day at the beach
• 2-day bike on the Great Taste Trail from Nelson to Marahou
• 4-day on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track Great walk. Welcome 2016 under
• 1.5 day in Wellington, Te Papa was perfect for a rainy day.  Wellington offers lots of good international food.  rented a car to drive out of wellington
• 1.5.day on the Northern Circuit Great Walk, hiked around Mt Doom in the Tongariro National Park
• Rotorua, Mtn biking, hiking, geothermal stuff and Maori culture
• 1 day on the Papamoa Beach, swimming in the pacific ocean on the other coast
• back to Auckland, return car and shower at the airport, and flew home.